How to check if your website is indexed

A site that is live is not a site that is found. Google has to learn the site exists, read it, and decide to store its pages. Stored pages are “indexed”. Pages that are not indexed cannot show up in search.

Here is how to check, and what to do with the answer.

Run the site: search

Open Google and type this, with your own domain:

site:yourdomain.com

Look at the results.

• Nothing. Google has not indexed any page. On a new site this is normal for the first few days.
• Some pages, fewer than you have. Google found part of the site. Note which pages are missing.
• All your pages. You are indexed. Check that the titles and descriptions look the way you want.

Run the same search in Bing. Bing has its own index, and ChatGPT search and Microsoft Copilot draw on it, so being missing from Bing means being missing from those answers too.

Google says the site: count is an estimate, not an exact figure. Use it to spot big gaps, not to count pages.

Check one page

If a single page is missing, use Google Search Console. It is Google’s free report on your site.

1. Open Search Console and choose your site.
2. Paste the page address into the bar at the top.
3. Read the result. It says whether the page is on Google, and if not, why.

The usual reasons a page is missing

• Google was never told the site exists. Add the site to Search Console and submit your sitemap (the list of your pages, usually at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml).
• A leftover block. A test version of the site may have told search engines to stay away. Open your live page, choose View Page Source, and search for noindex. Also open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and look for a line that says only Disallow: /.
• The page is not linked from anywhere. Search engines find pages by following links. Add the page to your menu or footer.
• The page is empty to a robot. Some sites build their text after the page loads. View Page Source and search for a sentence from the page. If it is missing, search engines may see a blank page.
• The page is new. Ask for a visit: paste the address into Search Console and choose “Request indexing”. Google limits how many requests you can make per day.
• Google saw it and passed. Search Console may say “Discovered, currently not indexed”. That usually means Google knows the page but has not judged it worth reading yet. Link to it from other pages on your site and make its text more useful.

When to check again

Check on launch day to get a baseline. Check again on day 7, day 14 and day 30. Each time, open the “Pages” report in Search Console and read the reason next to every page that is not indexed. Each reason tells you what to fix.

This is one of 52 checks in the Business Website Launch Checklist, in the chapter Get Found on Google and Bing.